Headboard and footboard construction for hospital beds



1955 w. A. HILLENBRAND ETAL 2,701,374

HEADBOARD AND FOOTBOARD CONSTRUCTION FOR HOSPITAL BEDS Filed Feb. 1, 1951 5 Sheets-Sheet l INVENTORS m4. M

ATTORNEYS 1955 w. A. HILLENB'RAND EI'AL 2,701,374

HEADBOARD AND FOOTBOARD CONSTRUCTION FOR HOSPITAL BEDS Filed Feb. 1, 1951 3 Sheets-Sheet 2 ATTORNEYS Feb. 8, 1955 w. A. HILLENBRAND ETAL HEADBOARD AND FOOTBOARD CONSTRUCTION FOR HOSPITAL BEDS 3 Sheets-Sheet 3 Filed Feb. 1, 1951 INVENTORS Mr BY ATTORNEYE United States Patent HEADBOARD AND FOOTBOARD CONSTRUCTION FOR HOSPITAL BEDS William A. Hillenbrand and Francis J. Burst, Batesville, Ind., assignors to Hill-Rom Company, Inc., Batesville, Ind., a corporation of Indiana Application February 1, 1951, Serial No. 208,942

3 Claims. (Cl. -72) This invention relates to hospital beds which are fabricated of wood and metal, whereby the beds combine the structural advantages of an all metal construction with the aesthetic advantages of wood. The metal and wood are also combined into a structure which facilitates quantity production by production line methods. These beds, of course, may also be used in institutions other than hospitals where problems and considerations are analo ous.

Within recent years, the medical profession and hospital managers have become increasingly aware of the psychological aspects of illness and recuperation, and particularly, of the importance of the patients mental attitude or spirit. In general, pleasant and congenial surroundings have been found to have a marked eifect upon the patients rate of recovery, and, in many instances, upon the patients chance for recovery. This proper recognition of the psychological factors has lead to the desire of hospital managers to make the hospital room as comfortable and homelike as possible, but this desirability must necessarily be balanced against not only the primary sanitary requirements, but also, the problem of maintenance costs. In general, wooden furniture is desirable from the aesthetic or psychological point of view, but is undesirable from that of maintenance costs. Wooden structures, in general, tend to get loose at the joints, particularly if subjected to heavy use, and, of course, the surfaces of all exposed parts tend to get nicked or scratched, thereby necessitating periodic refinishing.

The objective of the present inventors is to provide a hospital bed, and particularly, the head and footboards of a hospital bed, which are constituted structurally by metal parts, and only by metal parts, but which carry wood paneling for ornamental purposes only. A second objective is to provide a metallic mounting for the wood paneling of such a bedstead whereby the incorporation of the wood does not compromise the durability of the metal structure, and vice versa the incorporation of the wood paneling in the metal structure does not compromise the aesthetic appeal of the wood paneling. The thlrd objective of the inventors is to provide a bed structure of the general nature indicated which is easily and highly adapted for quantity production by modern manufacturing techniques. Other objectives and further advantages will be disclosed in the description of the following drawings in which:

Figure 1 is a perspective view of the bed with the conventional hospital springs and mattress in place.

Figure 2 is a front elevation of the frame of the footboard of the bedstead.

Figure 3 is a side elevation of the elements of Figure 2. Figure 4 is a front view of the footboard with the wood paneling in place.

Figure 5 is a side elevation of the bedstead in Figure 2.

Figure 6 is a sectional view taken on line 6-6 of Figure 4. I

Figure 7 is a sectional view taken on line 7--7 of Figure 6.

Figure 8 is a sectional view taken on line 8-8 of Figure 4.

Figure 9 is a sectional view taken on line 9--9 of Figure 8.

Figure 10 is a sectional view taken on line 10--10 of Figure 8.

In the bed disclosed in Figure 1, the headboard 1 and 'ice Each utilizes two hollow corner posts 3, which are preferably cut from an extruded aluminum form. The crosssection of each post is the same, so that one die may be utilized to form the post material for all four posts of the bed, the posts at the head and the posts at the foot being difierentiated from each other merely by being cut to different lengths. Casters 4 are mounted in the bottom of each corner post by conventional means according to conventional techniques. The corner posts of the footboard and the headboard are respectively tied together by angle iron stringers 5 which are tack welded to socket brackets 6 in which the large-headed pins 7 of the spring assembly 8 are seated. The spring assembly 8, as disclosed in Figure 1, is a conventional spring assembly of a type which is in general use at the present time and constitutes no part of this invention, being here utilized for illustrative purposes only.

The corner posts 3 are attached to the socket brackets 6 in a manner indicated in Figure 3, and illustrated in greater detail in Figure 8. At the appropriate height for the brackets, the post is apertured to receive two fastening bolts 9, which in combination with lock washers 10 and nuts 11 eifect the attachment. However, the walls of the extruded aluminum posts are too thin to withstand the canting pressure of the weight of the spring assembly and patient, which must be transmitted to the corner posts through the bolts. On this account, a reinforcing liner plate 12, preferably fabricated of steel, is inserted inside of the hollow corner posts. This liner plate is apertured to mate with the apertures in the posts, and thus the liner is positioned between the heads of the bolts and nuts and the aluminum wall of the corner posts.

The socket brackets 6 themselves compromise a member which is L-shaped in cross-section looking down on it as in Figure 9. The portion of the L which extends lengthwise of the bed is provided with the conventional slanting sockets 13 which mate with the pins of the spring assembly to attach the footboard to the spring assembly. The leg of the L of bracket 6, which extends crosswise of the bed, is apertured and bolted to the corner posts, embracing the thin aluminum wall of the corner posts in conjunction with the corner posts liners. As indicated by the weld indicia in Figure 3 and Figure 8 the angle iron stringers 5 which hold the corner posts together are welded to the under side of the socket brackets which are themselves attached to the corner posts as indicated.

The headboard and the footboard are of exactly the same construction, except for the heights of the corner the footboard 2 are alike in general structure, difiering only in height and in configuration of the wood paneling.

posts, and are held together solely by the spring assembly which is a rigid self-sustaining structure in and of itself, so that it not only holds the headboard together, but also reinforces each structurally by constituting additional bracing for the corner posts of the headboard and the footboard respectively.

Between the corner posts of the headboard and of the footboard, and mounted thereon in each case, is a wooden panel-the headboard panel being indicated at 14 and the footboard panel at 15. Panel 14 of the headboard is mounted at a level above that of the mattress so that it will serve as support for pillows. The footboard panel 15 is provided with a pair of apertures 16 through which access to the bed elevating mechanism is had, and with upper notches 17 which permit medication equipment to be attached to the corner posts.

The panels 14 and 15 are held to each corner supporting post by identical means, comprising, in each case, a lower clamp 18 and an upper clamp 19. The details of the lower clamp construction are particularly disclosed in Figures 8 and 10. Each clamp 18 is an L-shaped member, as viewed in Figure 8, having a horizontal arm which underlies the wood panel 15, and a vertical arm which embraces the lower edge of the panel, so that the panel may be clamped between the respective vertical arms and the corner posts, while being supported from underneath by the horizontally extending arms. Welded to the top of each of these latter arms and embedded in the Wood of the panel is an internally threaded cylindrical block 20. Each corner post is apertured in alignment with the threads of its block 20, and a screw 21 passes all the way through both walls of the corner posts into engagement with these threads, whereby rotation of the screws tightens the clamps against the panel to hold it securely against the corner posts. An indentation is provided in the lower edge of the wood panel to snugly accommodate each block 20, and thus the blocks serve to anchor the wood panel against lateral displacement. The vertical arm of the clamp extends sufficiently up the front of the wood panel to mask the block from the view of the observer.

The attachment of the wood panel at the top of each corner post is accomplished as disclosed in detail in Figures 6 and 7. Each upper clamp 19 is a compound element and includes a sleeve 22 which fits within the hollow interior of the corner post, being held therein by a rivet 23 which passes all the way through both opposite walls of the corner post and through the sleeve. This sleeve is welded to a top piece 24 which covers the hollow upper end of the corner post. The forward extension 25 of piece 24 is bent into an inverted hook or U configuration which embraces the top of the wood panel. In order to insure against lateral displacement of the wood panel at the top, a pointed detent 26 protrudes from the bottom of the center of the U-shaped member. As disclosed in Figure 1, the upper edges of the wood panels 14 and may be covered with metal molding which is adapted to protect them against disfigurement. In addition, as indicated in Figure 2, the side edges at the front of the panels may be beveled in order to better withstand the knocks and bumps to which they are exposed.

By the structure disclosed, a very strong and sturdy all-metal hospital bed is provided, that is, a hospital bed which is all-metal as far as its structure is concerned, but which embodies and incorporates ornamental wood paneling which is mounted in a manner to carry no structural stresses. All of the parts of the bed are adapted to be fabricated by quantity production methods, and are adapted to be assembled by production line techniques. The combination of the light, hollow, extruded aluminum corner posts, their secure attachment to the socket brackets connected by a single angle iron stringer, and the use of wood paneling, only to the extent necessary to provide ornamental relief, provides a bed which is light, durable, and aesthetic in appearance, in addition to being economical to manufacture. Having described my invention, I desire to be limited only by the following claims.

Having described our invention, we claim:

1. A clamp for supporting an ornamental wood panel on the front of a bedstead by attachment to the corner posts of the bedstead, said clamp comprising an L-shaped member including a horizontally disposed arm and a vertically disposed arm, said horizontally disposed arm adapted to fit beneath the lower edge of the wood panel and the vertically disposed arm to extend a short distance up the front of the wood panel, an internally threaded block attached to the upper surface of the horizontally disposed leg behind the vertically disposed leg where it is masked from view, and a bolt extending through the corner post of the bedstead into threaded engagement with the block.

2. A clamp adapted to attach an ornamental wood panel to a bedstead having a hollow, metal corner post, send clamp comprising a sleeve adapted to fit snugly inside of the top of the hollow metal corner post, a closure portion secured to the sleeve and adapted to cover the hollow top of the corner posts, and an inverted U-shaped hook portion adapted to embrace the top of the ornamental wood panel, a detent extending downwardly from the middle of the inverted U to engage into the wood panel to prevent lateral displacement, and a pin extending through the corner posts and the sleeve disposed therein to prevent axial dislodgement of the clamp from the corner posts.

3. In a hospital bed end member having corner posts, means for mounting a decorative wood panel upon said corner posts comprising a pair of clamps fastened upon each corner post, one of said clamps of each pair including an inverted U-shaped hook adapted to embrace the upper marginal edge of the panel, and the other clamp of each pair including an L-shaped member adapted to extend beneath the lower edge of the panel and engage the face of the panel marginally, and an internally threaded block fixed to the upper surface of the L-shaped member adapted to cooperate with a screw journalled in the corner post for pulling the lower edge of the panel in against the post.

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